Age of Anger

Starred review from January 23, 2017
In an impressively probing and timely work, Mishra, a novelist and cultural critic (A Great Clamour), illuminates intellectual patterns from the past 200 years that help explain our volatile present. In an age where tribal nationalism is on the rise and aggressive right-wing leaders are in power in Turkey, India, and the U.S., Mishra examines the modern world from the perspective of those left behind or rendered superfluous. He pays particular attention to the Enlightenment in 18th-century France and the clash between Voltaire’s meritocracy and Rousseau’s warning against “a commercial society based on mimetic desire, as a game rigged by and in favor of elites.” Mishra shows how Rousseau’s ideas presaged German Romanticism, subsequent revolutions throughout the world (both failed and successful), and today’s Hindu and Chinese nationalists. Mishra also discusses the relative latecomers to modernity in Europe (Germany, Russia, Italy) who sensed capitalism’s downside; the Asian leaders who “saw themselves as modernizers in a hurry”; and the reaction against modernity in the writings of Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, Iranian novelist Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, and many others. This exploration of global unrest is dense, but it’s so well-written and informative that it manages to be highly engaging.

Starred review from January 15, 2017
How the failures of capitalism have led to "fear, confusion, loneliness and loss"--and global anger.In this ambitious, deeply researched analysis, social critic and novelist Mishra (From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia, 2012, etc.) makes a persuasive argument that industrialism and capitalism have spawned virulent expressions of anger. He sees current upheaval--which fuels the Islamic State group and led to Brexit and Donald Trump's political success--stemming from the same source "as myriad Romantic revolts and rebellions of early nineteenth-century Europe"--i.e., "the mismatch between personal expectations, heightened by a traumatic break with the past, and the cruelly unresponsive reality of slow change." Individual freedom can feel terrifying, leading to a desire for an authoritative leader and, as Tocqueville put it, an "insatiable need for action, violent emotions, vicissitudes, and dangers." Mishra argues against taking an "us-them" view of the world as a contest between Western rationalism and "Islamofascism" but instead blames the current malaise on the West's insistence on the superiority of Enlightenment philosophy and failure to deliver on its promise of progress. As the author writes, a "promised universal civilization--one harmonized by a combination of universal suffrage, broad educational opportunities, steady economic growth, and private initiative and personal advancement--has not materialized." Most people, he believes, live fearfully in a world that they see they cannot control; they feel under siege by grisly horrors perpetrated by enemies, by the present and future effects of climate change, and by "arrogant and deceptive elites" who make them feel humiliated. Mishra bases his sage analysis on the "eclectic ideas" of European social theorists, including Dostoyevsky, Arendt, Heine, Marx, and scores of others. He especially highlights the contrast between Voltaire, "an unequivocal top-down modernizer," and Rousseau, who "tried to outline a social order where morals, virtue and human character rather than commerce and money were central to politics." A probing, well-informed investigation of global unrest calling for "truly transformative thinking" about humanity's future.

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Starred review from February 1, 2017
While contemporaries anticipated global progress, American philosopher George Santayana warned of an impending lava-wave of primitive blindness and violence. In recent history, Mishra sees that lava-waveand seeks to understand it. He finds essential interpretive insight in the eighteenth-century clash of the rationalist Voltaire and the romantic Rousseau. Challenging Voltaire's desire to create a society of individuals governed by enlightened self-interest, not religion or tradition, Rousseau warned that such a society would strip men of their wholeness, their virtue, while locking them in invidious competition. From Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, Rimbaud, Tocqueville, and others, Mishra gleans evidence that Voltaire's heirs have indeed let loose a dangerous dynamic by fostering widespread hopes that only a privileged elite can satisfy. Frustrated massesuprooted from faith and historic communitieshave joined lava-wave authoritarian movements, or descended into resentful (often violent) personal victimhood. Hence, the aggressive nationalism that sparked Europe's Great War of 191418; hence, the murderous racism that built Auschwitz; hence, the brutal class antipathies that created the Gulag. Sadly, Mishra sees this same lava-wave drama playing out again in the twenty-first century, not only in Asia and Africa but also in a Europe shattered by Brexit and an America rallying behind Donald Trump. A disturbing but imperatively urgent analysis.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2016

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Mishra traces the anger rocking the world today to 19th-century European militancy. Then, an urge for change drove the disaffected masses to challenge the self-satisfied few, spurring nationalists in Germany and Italy, revolutionaries in Russia, and anarchists everywhere. But their goals have not been wholly achieved, and from Tea Partyers to terrorists, those angry with their lot in the global economy are susceptible to demagogs and the lure of violence.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2017

How did the world get so fractious? Literary and political essayist Mishra (columnist, Bloomberg View & the New York Times Book Review; From the Ruins of Empire) traces worldwide modern political upheaval to the opposing philosophies of Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The unrealized promise of social, political, and economic equality held out by the Enlightenment vs. the reality of deep-rooted and increasing inequality has led to centuries of ressentiment--ingrained resentment and hostility toward others coupled with a sense of powerlessness, envy, and humiliation. Mishra shows that ressentiment is at the root of seemingly diverse movements: chauvinism, jingoism, nationalism, authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, and anarchy. It has persisted through the industrial revolution to the urbanization and globalization of today. Ressentiment exists globally, from Africa and Asia to Europe, Russia, and the United States. Examples from events and political movements from the late 18th century through the present day support his ideas; his conclusions about the our current state and future are bleak. VERDICT This complicated analysis of a complicated issue will appeal to readers with a background in political, economic, and philosophical history. [See Prepub Alert, 8/15/16.]--Laurie Unger Skinner, Coll. of Lake Cty., Waukegan, IL

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.